The Little Robot
by leira308
Summary: John discovers the unexpected reason to Cameron's strange behavior. He sees an even more unexpected side of her, which shows that she truly is different and is much more than just a machine.
1. Happy Birthday to Me

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles or its characters. I only own this story and its plot. If I did own the actual show it wouldn't have been cancelled. :)

Happy Birthday To Me

John Connor ran. He ran as fast as his legs could carry him across the empty, hollow canal, his footsteps echoing against the concrete. He had absolutely no idea where he was going or where he would hide, but he didn't care. As long as he was away from her, as long as he was safe. He mentally chided himself at the thought. _No one is ever safe,_ his mother would tell him repeatedly. Suddenly, he heard Sarah's ear-piercing, strangled screams fill his surroundings. Then as abruptly as it began, her screaming stopped.

His heart skipped a beat, and his legs froze in place. The silence that followed began to slowly suffocate him. All of a sudden, he collapsed, trying his best to blink back the tears when the realization hit him. There would be no more lectures about lying low, no more watching her obsessively clean her weapons, and no more pancakes every single morning. His mother was gone, another life sacrificed for "John Connor, future leader of mankind". Sobs finally overtook him, shaking his entire body.

_Some leader I am_, he thought, knowing that by remaining in his grief-stricken state, he was awaiting death.

When he had first heard her footsteps, he didn't move.

_John, run!_ _On your feet, soldier! _he could almost hear his mother's spirit scream.

_No_, he thought. He had been running his entire life, and he was sick and tired of it.

He heard her come closer and closer, until the footsteps stopped in front of him. From the ground and through his tears, he could only see her favorite combat boots. When he finally allowed himself to look up at her face, he instantly regretted it. The eyes that stared back at him weren't the beautiful, curious brown eyes of his cyborg protector. They were the cold, calculating eyes of the TOK715. From the corner of his eye, he saw her hand twitch in anticipation of killing him.

He had not only lost his mother, but he had also lost the girl he had secretly loved. He had lost Cameron. At this new realization, a fresh wave of bitter tears trickled down his pained face.

_Happy birthday to me,_ he chuckled darkly to himself.

She grabbed him by his neck and hoisted him off the ground and held him high in the air. His feet dangled below him as he struggled to breathe. Darkness began to take over the edges of his blurred vision, and he felt his very life being strangled out of him. He tried to open his heavy eyes to take one last look at her face, because even though she was murdering him, he still loved her.

No matter what.

He watched her open her mouth to speak. The words that followed were unexpected, and caught him completely off guard.

Cameron began to sing, "Up where they walk, up where they run, up where they stay all day in the sun. Wandering free, wish I could be, part of your world."

His face began to wrinkle up in puzzlement.

Through his lack of air, he could only shout, "What?!"


	2. Sleepless Nights

**Author's Note**: Sorry it took me forever to update. I've had an insane schedule and a really bad case of writer's block…a bad combination. Here's the second chapter. The story ended up much longer than I originally thought it'd be, so I think there will be a third and last chapter after this. Thanks for the reviews for the first chapter! I'm glad to know people were curious or interested in what will happen next.

Sleepless Nights

John shot straight up in his bed, kicking the covers off and onto the floor. His back was sticky with cold sweat, and his heart thudded violently, ringing through his ears. By his bedside, he saw the bright, red numbers on his digital alarm clock flash 4:30 AM. Sarah's agonizing screams, images of Cameron choking him, and then suddenly serenading him, came piercing through his mind. He took slow, deep breaths, replaying the strange nightmare over and over again. He knew that besides Cameron singing to him, most of it wasn't just a dream. It was a memory. It was a look of what would have happened if they didn't trap Cameron between those two trucks that day.

That day was the day that Cameron went through an explosion, damaging her chip, and then tried to kill him and his mother. He remembered seeing her standing in his doorway, pointing a gun right at his head. The most pathetic part of it all was that even as she stood there ready to shoot him senseless, he was beyond relieved to see that she had survived the explosion. That day was also the day she told him she loved him.

"_I love you, John, and you love me!"_ she had cried out desperately to stop him from removing her chip, her face filled with emotions that a machine should be incapable of having.

Did she truly mean what she said, or was she just trying to manipulate him? He didn't know. But because of those words, he hadn't had a decent night's sleep ever since. Because of Cameron and those words, that was his best and worst birthday yet. He cradled his aching head in his hands.

"What a dream," he mumbled to himself.

Once his heart eventually stopped racing, he heard the soft hum of music drifting through the crack underneath his door. He looked up when he recognized the familiar tune, a distant memory of his short-lived childhood. The melody was now fresh in his mind, branded there by the nightmare he had thought he escaped. But there it was, a reminder of the dream he just had, quietly buzzing in his ears.

It was the song that Cameron had sung.

But the voice that sang did not belong to Cameron. He wiped off the sweat on his forehead with the back of his hand and then walked over to his bedroom door, ready to find out where it was coming from. He was curious as to why anything Disney-related would even exist in the home of his dysfunctional, pessimistic family. John grasped the silver doorknob and shivered at the touch of cold metal. Trying his best to be discreet, he carefully opened the door, not wanting to wake Sarah, Derek, or Cameron.

_Wait_, _Cameron doesn't sleep…machines don't sleep, _he reminded himself.

It seemed the more he spent time with her, the more it became harder for him to accept that she was just a machine. So he tried his best to avoid her, he even found Riley, a normal, human girl he could spend time with. He liked Riley, he really did, but when he'd stare into her ocean blue eyes, he would always catch himself imagining Cameron's wide, innocent, golden brown eyes staring back at him.

He tried to shake his thoughts away as he continued walking down the dark, empty hallway. Following the music, he stopped at the top of the stairs, and squinted when the bright fluorescent lamplights shone in his eyes. From there he could see Cameron downstairs in the living room, sitting on their cream couch. She sat with her back straight and her hands in her lap, with perfect posture that he'd seen only Cameron wear at all times. And yet somehow, she looked…different.

_I am different_, he imagined her saying.

He remembered her on the day he had discovered she was a machine sent back to protect him, grabbing one of his chips and taking a bite, something he never thought he'd live to see. A Terminator eating chips.

That's when he noticed that she seemed to be leaning towards the television in front of her, answering his question as to where the music was coming from. As he descended down the stairs, he watched the red-haired mermaid displayed on their television screen swim, dance, and sing around her grotto with her best friend, a yellow and blue fish. He walked over to the couch and stood by Cameron, who didn't even look up at him.

"Cam, what are you doing?" John asked, peering at her incredulously.

John knew that she never slept, but he never pictured her sitting here in the middle of the night watching "_The Little Mermaid"_. He stared expectantly at her, waiting for some long, drawn-out explanation on how Disney movies are effective and help prepare for the inevitable war against Skynet. Cameron remained silent and intensely focused, continuing to watch the movie as if her life depended on it.

"Cameron?" he asked her again, but she still didn't respond.

He reached over and poked her shoulder, sure that she would react when he touched her when she was wearing her favorite purple leather jacket. She had _killed_ the guy who had tried to steal it. When she didn't respond again, he relented and sighed.

_Hey, if you can't beat them, join them_, John thought as he took a seat next to Cameron, who still remained hypnotized by the mermaid's song.

He started to watch the mermaid, Ariel, swim and sing again. Surrounding her was her grotto filled with ordinary, human objects that she saw as priceless treasures. Her song was about how although it seemed like she had everything, all she really wanted was to be part of the human world. As he listened, it suddenly occurred to him that his subconscious probably heard the song while he was sleeping in his bedroom, explaining the abnormal ending of his nightmare. John looked away from the screen for just a brief second, when he spotted a pile of movies stacked neatly in front of them on the mahogany coffee table.

_Who would have thought Terminators had their own movie nights?_

He rolled his eyes wondering if Cameron stole the movies and if there was some poor Blockbuster employee with a black eye somewhere. Then, he picked up the pile and began to sift through the DVDs.

The first was the one he was the most acquainted with. It was the story that his mother would read to him in Spanish every night and the movie he'd watch countless times when he was young. He remembered Cameron mentioning the tale in passing months ago, but he still couldn't understand why she would want to watch _"The Wizard of Oz"_. After all, his mother and uncle did mock her with the nickname "Tin Miss" after the character, the Tin Man, because he too was not human and had no heart…

He bit his lip and moved onto the next movie. He had never watched the movie, nor did he want to after hearing parts of what it was about from Morris. Morris had said that _"'Twilight' _was a chick flick with a lovesick vampire named Edward wanting to be human so he could keep on nuzzling some damsel in distress when he should be in horror movies sucking people's blood." John was sure that Morris was probably over exaggerating when he had said that, but he still didn't want to take any chances.

The last movie was the empty DVD cover of _"The Little Mermaid"_. He had seen it a few times when he was a kid, but it wasn't his favorite Disney movie. Back then, his favorite Disney movie was _"Peter Pan"_ because of all the daring adventures and fights against pirates in a magical land where no one would ever grow up. Even now the idea sounded appealing to John, never having to grow old, never having to face Skynet and have the future of the human race lay upon his shoulders. He sighed aloud, wishing he could find his own Neverland. The sound of Ariel's singing snapped him back into reality.

"When's it my turn? Wouldn't I love, love to explore that shore up above," she sang as she swam upward, her voice passionate and her hand outstretched up above her, towards the world she desired so fervidly for.

"Out of the sea, wish I could be…part of that world," she continued to sing, dejectedly sinking down to the floor of the ocean, finishing the song.

John glanced over at Cameron, still speculating why she was so enchanted with this particular movie, until he saw her face. His mouth dropped open at the sight before him. The expression that played across her delicate features was a mix of pure fascination and unconditional longing. It was the same hopeless expression on Ariel's face as she sat on the ocean floor. It reminded him all too much of his birthday when she was smashed up between those two trucks, her usually emotionless voice with an edge of hysteria to it and tears welling up in her eyes. He wasn't used to seeing Cameron look so vulnerable. He wasn't used to seeing her look so…human.

Perplexed by the unfathomable look on her face, he continued to gape at her. What did she seem to be distraught about, and why? He looked down at the movies he held in his hands and had a sudden epiphany. All these movies were connected. The Tin Man, the metal man who journeyed to the Emerald City to find a heart. Edward, the vampire who wanted to be human for his mortal love. Ariel, the mermaid who wished nothing more than to be part of the world up above her with her prince.

It all had to do with yearning to become human.

John could feel the dull, aching pain in his chest of his heart breaking in two for her, and all he wanted to do was give her a piece of his so she could have a heart of her own. Reluctantly, he tore his eyes away from her face hoping that this meant that, underneath her Coltan endoskeleton, there could potentially be a soul. Or maybe he was just deluding himself. He clenched his fists, digging his fingernails in his palms, and bit his lip to stop himself from holding her close and reassuring her. He focused on the movie again, knowing that it was the only way he could keep his attention away from Cameron and the grief she had caused him with just one wistful, heart wrenching look.


End file.
